Labor für Virtuelles Studio / Virtuelle Realität

Subtle Animations using Talent Tracking in a Virtual (TV) Studio

The Virtual Sets and Virtual Environments Laboratory of the FH Düsseldorf developed and tested subtle animations using a talent tracking system for virtual studio applications.

Markerless talent tracking is widely used for interactions and animations within virtual environments. In a virtual (tv) studio talents could be overburden by interaction tasks because camera and text require extensive attention. We take a look into animations and interactions within a studio, which do not require any special attention or learning. We show the generation of an artificial shadow from a talent, which ease the keying process, where separation of real shadows from the background is a difficult task. We also demonstrate animations of footsteps and dust. Furthermore, capturing talents' height can also be used to adjust the parameters of elements in the virtual environment, like the position and scaling of a virtual display. In addition to the talents, a rigid body was tracked as placeholder for graphics, easing the interaction tasks for a talent.

Two test productions show the possibilities, which subtle animations offer. In the second production, the rendering was improved (shadows, filtering, normal maps, ...) and instead of using the rigid body to move an object (i.e., the flag), the animation was only controlled by the the hand's position.